In transmission engineering, most often it would be rather impractical to characterize the magnitude of signals directly by a numerical value in volts or watts. Instead, a logarithmic measure is used, expressed in "dB", to characterize the signal magnitude in relation to some chosen reference value.
ITU-T G.100.1-2015 Referenced Document
ITU-R V.574-4 USE OF THE DECIBEL AND THE NEPER IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS
ITU-T G.121 Loudness Ratings (LRs) of National Systems Study Group 12
ITU-T G.223 ASSUMPTIONS FOR THE CALCULATION OF NOISE ON HYPOTHETICAL REFERENCE CIRCUITS FOR TELEPHONY
ITU-T G.711 PULSE CODE MODULATION (PCM) OF VOICE FREQUENCIES
ITU-T G.712 Transmission performance characteristics of pulse code modulation channels = SERIES G: TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS AND MEDIA DIGITAL SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS - Digital terminal equipments - Coding of analogue signals by pulse code modulation*, 2024-04-20 Update
ITU-T G.722 7 kHz audio-coding within 64 kbit/s (Study Group 16)
ITU-T O.41 Psophometer for Use on Telephone-Type Circuits - Specifications for Measuring Equipment - Equipment for the Measurement of Analogue Parameters (Study Group 4) 17 pp [Superseded: ITU-T P.53]
ITU-T P.56 (Pre-Published) Objective measurement of active speech level
ITU-T P.79 Calculation of loudness ratings for telephone sets (Study Group 12)*, 2024-04-20 Update
ITU-T G.100.1-2015 history
2015ITU-T G.100.1-2015 The use of the decibel and of relative levels in speechband telecommunications (Study Group 12)
2001ITU-T G.100.1-2001 The use of the decibel and of relative levels in speechband telecommunications - SERIES G: TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS AND MEDIA@ DIGITAL SYSTEMS AND NETWORKS International telephone connections and circuits - General definitions (Study Group 12)